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DISCOURSE VIII ONE IS THE FASTING [927] of the Jews,! or rather, the drunkenness of the Jews.2 Yes, it is possible to be drunk without wine; it is possible for a sober man to act as if he is drunk and to revel like a prodigal. If a man . not get drunk without wine, the prophet would never have said: "Woe to those who are drunk not from wine;,,3 if a man could not get drunk without wine, Paul would never have said: "Do not be drunk with wine.,,4 For he said this as if there were a possibi1 If Discourses IV-VIII constitute a series, this sennon would have been given after thll Ten Days of Penitence and the Monday following Sukkot, probably in the year 387. Cf. Introd. III 25.'Given the content of the sermons already delivered, what now remains is to reclaim and rehabilitate those who have fallen into the Judaizing trap. 2 In Disc. 1.2.5 the Jews' hardness of heart came from a gluttony and drunkenness which made them reject Christ's yoke when they should have been fasting; now their fasting is untimely 'and an abomination (cf. Disc. 1.2.6). Those who fasted in Isaiah's day (cf. Is 58.4-5) should have been properly contrite instead of drunk with anger; now when the Jews fast, they dance in the marketplace and go to licentious excesses. Their pretext is that they are fasting, but they act like men who are drunk (cf. Disc. 1.2.7). Note that their drunkenness does not come from wine. 3 cr. Is 29.9. The chapter deals with the Assyrians' assault on Jerusalem, but the invaders will fail because of Yahweh's protection. In her blindness and drunkenness (which makes her stagger, but not from strong drink) Jerusalem refuses to believe God's revelation that she will be saved. F. Moriarty, JBC 16:49, says that Judah's moral lethargy and persistent refusal to listen to conscience will inevitably lead to the loss of all moral sense. 4 Eph5.18. 205 206 ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM lity of getting drunk some other way. And it is possible. A man can be drunk with anger, with unseemly desire, with greed, with vainglory , with ten thousand other passions. For drunkenness is nothing other than a loss of right reason, a derangement, and depriving the soul of its health.s (2) Therefore, I would not be making too strong a statement if I should say that we find a drunkard not only in the man who is a heavy drinker of strong wine but we also fmd one in the man who nurtures some other passion in his soul. For the man in love with a woman who is not his wife, the man who spends his time with prostitutes, is a drunkard. The heavy drinker cannot walk straight, his speech is rude, his eyes cannot see things as they really are.6 In the same way, the drunkard who is filled with the strong wine of his undisciplined passion is also unsound of speech; everything he utters is disgraceful, corrupt, crude, and ridiculous; he, too, cannot see things as they really are because he is blind to what he sees. Like a deranged man or one who is out of his wits, he imagines he sees everywhere the woman he yearns to ravish. No matter how many people speak to him at gatherings or banquets, at any time or place, he seems not to hear them; he strains after her and dreams of his sin; he is suspicious of everything and afraid of everything; he is no better off than some trap-shy animal. (3) Again, the man in the grip of anger is drunk. In the same way as the other drunkards, his' face becomes swollen, his voice grows rough, his eyes are bloodshot, his mind is darkened, his reason is 5 The notion of a man being drunk without wine is a favorite with Chrysostom . The ravages of passion are just as bad as the ravages of drink. There are parallel passages (which argue from the same two texts: Is 29.9 and Eph 5.18) in, e.g., De Statuis 1 (PG 49.22) and De resurrectione Domini (PG 50.434-36). The latter is particularly graphic and is quoted (along with others) in ACW 31.255-59. The worst thing is that drunkenness ~ a self-chosen demon, which robs a...

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